Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola shows confidence
The ex-Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola has enjoyed huge success in his managerial career, and is clear about that, but knows the critics are waiting for him to loseManchester City vs Napoli: Champions League
Keeping confident within modesty
Pep Guardiola is ready to be targeted by critics at Manchester City, despite having mainly enjoyed adulation in his managerial career so far. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss insists he is nothing special, explaining he only receives attention and fanfare because he has been able to win silverware.
Guardiola, who is preparing City to face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, thinks all of the Premier League managers are operating at the highest level and accepts the critics will come for him before long.
Dealing with the questions
The City boss was asked how he coped with the scrutiny of his methods and revealed he barely looks at what is said about him, even though he has been the subject of books and documentaries.
"Do you know why? It is because we won," he said to Sky Sports. "Do you think they are going to write books about the losers? It would be nice to read a book about why they are losers, sometimes it is more interesting.
"They wrote the books and made the documentaries because we won. And we won because it was with huge teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
"Believe me, all the managers at this level - here in the Premier League - they are all good. I haven't seen anything here with the managers that is not good. All of them are top. People talk to me nicely because I won, not because I am better than the other ones.
Critics are always ready
"So the critics can be ready because sometimes I am not going to win. How can I handle that? Don't read too much, don't think too much about that, otherwise I would not sleep at night. Just think about what we did in the last game and what we can do in the next game to be better. That is the only way to survive in that world.
"If you thought about failing the illusions of the people and the players, wow, that would be tough to survive thinking like that."
Managerial life at Barcelona
After a week that saw Luis Enrique announce he will be ending his time as Barcelona head coach following the conclusion of this season, Guardiola reflected on his own time in the role.
"When I arrived in Barcelona the expectation was not high - 95 per cent of the people didn't want me," he said. "And I know what happened in the beginning was tough, the people killed me, they didn't give me a chance to show what was good.
"The people in Barcelona say how beautiful they are with me now, but they are nice with me because we won. In that job if you don't win nobody survives."
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